There aren’t always two sides to a debate

Actually, in my experience, there very rarely are, if ever. Were there two sides of equal importance and righteousness when it came to slavery? Or segregation? Or women’s rights? Or … well, anything else, really?

A popular argument used by kooks and cranks is that we evil science-loving folks try and shut them down and silence them (which certainly isn’t true) and that we should give them an equal platform to spread their nonsense. The problem is that some issues – of not most – simply do not have two sides that are equal. In most cases, one camp is governed by evidence and common sense, whilst the other peddles nothing more than superstition and baseless claims. This is the case with debates on Evolution vs. Creationism, or science-based medicine vs. “alternative medicine” (ie. woo, hocus-pocus, whatever you wanna call it), and the likes.

SMBC Theater has a humorous little video on the matter, below. Whilst rather over-the-top, it does make its point quite well.

They didn’t really need to resort to such exaggerated caricatures of pseudoscientific wackaloons we battle all the time; “experts” claiming that dinosaurs were all vegetarians before the Fall of Man, or “specialists” claiming to cure cancer with peach lotion, are ridiculous enough in their own right.

Now, of course, once you’ve seen the video, be sure to watch it again with an eye on the news crawler at the bottom. Hehe.

(via Friendly Atheist)